I have been incredibly blessed to be able to approach my fundraising goal to cover the expenses I will incur during my kidney donation. All of the money donated has come from friends, acquaintances and outright strangers. It is amazing to me that such a large community of people have stepped out to support me.

Today I want to introduce you about to some wonderful families who are in need of additional support to complete their adoptions. Both families have been officially awarded their adoptions of their sons in Bulgaria and are just trying to pull together the remaining funds for travel.

Doug and Lynda Collicott are a wonderful family who is close to bringing their second son home from Bulgaria. Both Doug and Lynda are deaf and they were blessed with FIVE biological daughters who all can hear. Despite being overrun with Estrogen in the household Doug is one of the funniest guys I know. Lynda is an incredibly caring mother and hard worker!

While Doug and Lynda are thrilled to have such wonderful girls, they felt a longing to raise a child who was deaf and to have a son. They contacted me in 2011 about adopting a little boy who was waiting named Andrei.

While in the process of adopting Andrei they looked to add a second son to the adoption. Unfortunately little Brett was not available for adoption until Andrei’s adoption was complete. So they are back again this year and have just been officially awarded their adoption of little Brett.

Brett is also deaf and shows some signs of autism. The family is eager to bring him home and is hoping to meet this goal with a matching grant they have been awarded from Signs of Hope. If you would like to help this great family bring Brett home you can donate to this GRANT.

The second family I would like to introduce you to is the Ashby family. The Ashby family has just been awarded adoption of a little guy named Drake, also from Bulgaria.

Drake was born with some facial deformities and abandoned by his birth family. Drake is very delayed in his development from being raised in an orphanage his entire life. Every day he spends without his family is a day of progress lost. The Ashby family is literally days away from leaving to pick up their son and short on funds to do so. I am worried they will have to delay their trip if they can’t fund raise the remaining funds they need for their plane tickets. Winter is a harsh time for children in orphanages in Eastern Europe. Most of the buildings are old and drafty. Illness runs rampant even with the best of hygiene. Please consider helping this family. If you would like to donate to one of their current fundraisers please check out their blog.